Woodside raises offshore gas estimate

Australian firm Woodside Petroleum believes it has found more gas than previously estimated following two discoveries in Myanmar offshore earlier this year.

The company has raised the estimated size of contingent resources in two of its blocks by 83 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) to 4481mmboe, according to a May 20 announcement. This equates to 2.4 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas, the company said last week, according to Australian media reports.

Earlier this year, Woodside and its partners made two gas discoveries in the Bay of Bengal, suggesting a promising future for commercial gas production in the area.

In January, Woodside announced it had found a gas column of 129 metres with 15m of net gas pay, at the Shwe Yee Htun-1 well in Block A-6, where it holds a 40 percent interest.

Myanmar Petroleum Resources holds a 20pc stake while French firm Total holds 40pc.

Just over a month later, an exploration well in block AD-7 intersected a gas column of around 64m (210 feet), with 62m of net gas pay.

The block is located around 100 kilometres (62 miles) off the coast of western Myanmar’s Rakhine State and is 60pc owned by Daewoo International and 40pc by Woodside.

Woodside CEO Peter Coleman said on May 20 that analysis of the exploratory well data confirms the development potential of both discoveries. The company plans to explore another four to seven wells in the first quarter of next year.

“The logical development option for the Thalin-1A discovery is a tieback to the nearby Shwe field,” Mr Coleman said. A tieback is a connection between a new gas discovery and an existing facility. The Shwe natural gas field, which began commercial operations in 2013, is run by Daewoo.

“We recognise additional exploration potential in areas immediately adjacent to the discovery and will target these to ensure any development concept is commensurate with the full block potential,” Mr Coleman said.

An official from the Ministry of Electricity and Energy said yesterday that Woodside’s discovery is a “promising sign for Myanmar offshore, even though it is not a very big reserve”.

Gas reserves at the country’s four producing fields are 6.5tcf at the Yadana field, 4.1tcf at the Yetagun field, 4.5tcf at the Shwe field and 1.4tcf at the Zawtika field, according to data from state-owned Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise.

Woodside won two offshore blocks in a 2013 government bidding round and is the largest acreage holder in the Rakhine Basin, with interests in six blocks covering 47,000 square kilometres.